Good morning traders!

In Asia today, the Hang Seng was down 13.72 points at 15,186.66 at the midpoint while the Nikkei has just closed ahead up 129.71 points at 15,551.31.

Oil prices were higher in Asian trading as cold weather chilled key areas of the US, raising expectations of a rise in demand for heating oil. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, was up 49 cents at $59.81 a barrel from its close of $59.32 in the US on Friday.

Early broker notes:

XSTRATA INITIATED 'NEUTRAL' AT HSBC, PRICE TARGET 1450P
GO-AHEAD UPGRADED TO 'NEUTRAL' VS 'UNDERWEIGHT' AT JP MORGAN
LEGAL & GENERAL UPGRADED TO 'BUY' AT DEUTSCHE BANK

Happy trading!

G.

LONDON (AFX) - Leading shares are tipped for a cautious start to the week with investors wary ahead of today's pre-budget speech by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, dealers said.
According to spread-betting firm CMC, the FTSE 100 is set to open 2 points higher at around 5,530, having closed on Friday 42.0 points firmer at 5,528.1.

MARKETS
Tokyo: Nikkei closed at 15,551.31, up 129.71
Hang Seng midday: 15,186.66, down 13.72

TODAY'S PRESS
* Oil industry braced for new tax; company profits could be hit in chancellor's pre-Budget report; measures to boost affordable housing expected; growth forecast to be cut drastically - FT
* Blair faces a tough sell to get EU to 'share the pain' of budget cuts plan - FT
* JP Morgan Chase to hire 4,500 Indian graduates - FT
* NTL set for 817 mln stg bid for Virgin Mobile - FT
* PD PORTS, which has recommended a takeover from Australian consortium Endeavour, receives another approach - FT
* Babcock & Brown, the Sydney-based asset financier, attempts to break up the agreed 246 mln stg takeover of PD PORTS by a trio of Australian infrastructure funds - Telegraph

PRESS COMMENT
FT
THE LEX COLUMN comments on Petrodollars (long term impact of rising oil prices on the dollar is negative), Spain's takeover subsidy (Spain may want to build a new world, but not even it can ignore the time value of money), US banks (with the share of financial profits still at almost a third of total US corporate income, earnings pressures have hardly reached boiling point yet)
Independent
Small Talk: Stephen Foley comments on Clear Debt (start of trading pencilled in for Jan 4), Ofex, LANGBAR, EBT MOBILE (a stake of up to 40 pct in the business might be up for grabs, and CARPHONE WAREHOUSE is ahead of a pack of potential investors that also includes VODAFONE), SCOTT TOD (even Nicholas Tod, the ousted chief executive,. thinks he is likely to fail in his bid to get his job back), GALLEON (buys all the rights to Mysti, the fairy sent to live on Earth)

Outlook

Good morning all

End-of-day Market Summary